France Urges Schools to Hold Wine Tastings

Government suggests knowledge as tool to fight binge drinking

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 5, 2010 2:36 PM CST

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France Urges Schools to Hold Wine Tastings — If students learned the pleasures of fine wine, perhaps they wouldn't quaff so indiscriminately, a French report argues. (Shutterstock)

How do you get college kids to drink less? By giving them wine, of course! At least that’s what a French government-commissioned report suggests. By holding wine tastings, the reasoning goes, colleges can educate students on the merits of drinking well in moderation. “Why is there sexual education and not viticultural education?” study co-author and noted gastronome Jean-Pierre Coffe asks.

“Drinking is not drinking a bottle. Wine is pleasure. It's like love. It's the same,” he continues. But the head of one anti-alcoholism group calls it “naïve” to believe that lunchtime wine handouts would curb binge drinking, reports the Guardian.
(More France stories.)

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